Telephones have been in use for almost one hundred fifty years, but the technology involved has improved at a rate almost equal to that of computers. Today's highly automated systems, from voice controlled cellular telephones to high-speed electronic switching gear, have helped to make telephones almost ubiquitous.
As telephones have proliferated and the technology has abandoned, the cost of operating telephones has continued to decrease. For example, cellular telephone time, which used to cost on the order of a dollar a minute in some regions, is now at twenty to thirty cents per minute. Unfortunately for those paying the bills, these circumstances have lead to employees, roommates, children, and the like treating the telephone as if it were free of operating costs, which can ultimately result in high telephone bills.
Some in the prior art have sought to control outgoing telephone calls in an effort to reduce costs, especially those incurred by unauthorized individuals making calls outside a local calling area. By way of example, without intending to limit the present invention, U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,157, issued Sep. 1, 1998 to Clarke, et al., discloses a method and apparatus for controlling outgoing calls on a telephone line based on time of day and day of the week through a centralized call center. The centralized call center can also restrict incoming calls, requiring a caller to enter a privileged caller code before the call will be completed.
Another example of telephone call control systems employed in the prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,129, issued Sep. 15, 1998 to Smith, et al., which discloses a stand-alone device which places or cancels outgoing calls based on a user-entered PIN code. The Smith invention teaches that emergency numbers and incoming calls are not barred. The device is designed to be installed within a telephone or across fixed telecommunications wiring installations within a building. The device can be configured with a default setting, such as no outgoing calls; emergency calls only; emergency and local calls; and emergency, local, and long distance calls (i.e. no international calls). Further, the device can be configured to block all numbers within a given exchange except for a specific number.
A third example of telephone call control systems employed in the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,756, issued Jun. 12, 2001 to Borland et al. The telephone control system requires a user making an outgoing call to identify himself or herself to the system using a unique identifier. The unique identifier and the number to be called are then referenced against a pre-compiled list to determine whether the call will be established. If the call cannot be established, a recording may play which informs the user as to the reasons the call cannot be established. The system also captures the phone number associated with an incoming phone call and, if the number matches a predefined list, a system user may be required to enter a user identifier prior to the system user and the caller being able to communicate with each other.
Another concern raised by widespread telephone use, especially portable telephones, is safety. Many cellular telephone owners purchase telephones for their own safety or the safety of a loved one in case of an emergency. However, once people have a cellular telephone, they quickly begin using it for non-emergency calls as well, including receiving calls from a variety of people. Incoming calls can be very distracting, especially when the person being called is driving a car, sitting in a classroom, or is otherwise occupied. Some school systems, for example, forbid cellular telephones in schools, and others require that students turn the telephones off during the school day. While turning off a telephone reduces the likelihood of distraction, turning off the telephone prevents the telephone owner from receiving an incoming emergency call.